Governance and Social Justice (GSJ)

The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. – Declaration on the Right to Development

To ensure development and shared prosperity, governments need to be transparent and held accountable by the people they serve. Governments need to be responsive to the needs of the people and enable their participation in governance. In line with GLEEHD’s mission, we provide government institutions, key professional support that will promote effective democratic governance, transparency, peace and security, policy reforms and human rights while fostering collaborative engagement between the government and citizens to foster sustainable living.

How we are making change happen

Government-Citizen Engagement: We foster interaction between the government and the people, as well as build strong communities by ensuring government involves citizens in creating policies and implementing programmes that represent their interests. We ensure government-citizen engagement through the following programmes and activities:

We organize forums where citizens can air their views on a wide range of policymaking activities, including budget priorities and the acceptability of physical projects.

We organize key bi-annual roundtable discussions to engage citizens, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), media and government officials on salient community and national issues/challenges

We also convene annual high-level roundtables and conferences of Heads of States for Pan-African and International government institutions that will enlighten participants and enhance commitments to fighting corruption, timely response of government to salient national issues and promotion of effective leadership and governance

We organize bi-annual inter-generational dialogues between African Youths and African leaders to promote interaction and youth engagement in democracy and governance.

We partner with local and international CSOs to contribute to and/or form a coalition that will monitor elections across countries in Africa.

We train CSOs and community leaders on developing skills needed for effective participation in community governance and political process.

Policy Reform Advocacy: GLEEHD Foundation is committed to influencing decisions on policies, and supporting the development of new ones, on good governance and human development in Africa. This is because government policies that do not promote social development tend to truncate sustainable livelihood and further enhance the cycle of poverty. By engaging the government at all levels, GLEEHD hopes to build the capacity of government to enhance policy decisions while making them aware of the policy implications to social development. These, we achieve by:

Undertaking key research based on outcomes and results of all good governance, leadership and security programs and events that would be utilized for policy advocacy and influencing constructive policy reforms.

Providing support for government high-level environmental policy reforms.

Supporting governmental institutional efforts in responding to the needs of their people. This we do by offering consultation services to government leaders on key relevant projects and programs.

Organizing rountable discussions and public lectures to broaden the circle of those involved in policy decision making.

Offering ideas to decision makers and leaders on issues of good governance and human development in Africa.

Facilitating research, formulation and implementation of policies and strategies to enhance socio-economic development and good governance in Africa.

Peace and Security: We foster partnerships and bilateral relationships between various African governments and engagement with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to address issues of peace and security on the continent. Strengthening security infrastructures in Africa has become one of the prerequisites to attaining relative peace and stability on the continent, where about 15 countries are currently at war. This is why the GLEEHD Foundation is promoting reforms and capacity building programs to engender effective peace building, end terrorism and improve security on the continent. We also:

Organize Peace, Security and counter-terrorism Summits that engages all relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector.

Organize Trainings and seminars for relevant stakeholders such as peer mediators, CSOs and security agencies in areas of peace building, early warning/early response signals and general anti-terrorism strategies

Promote civil-military relations in Africa as a tool to entrench constitutionalism and demilitarisation as well as addressing qualitative engagement of the military during peace times.

Organize townhall meetings that bring together the government, citizens, CSOs, the media, security and defence stakeholders thus providing an opportunity for Government to brief its people on what it is doing to ensure peace and security, and an opportunity for citizens to provide feedback.

Success stories

Here are some of our achievements in Good Governance and Social Justice:

Over the years, we have actively influenced policies through various advocacy programs and initiative.

We organized the African Security and Investment Emergency Summit alongside the Commonwealth Day Observance Service in London in March 2015 with support from the Royal Commonwealth Society. The summit brought together stakeholders from across Africa, the UK and other parts of the Commonwealth, and the Keynote address was delivered by Baroness Flather of the British House of Lords. Together, we sought and came up with recommendations for Government and other stakeholders in finding lasting solutions to Africa’s economic and security challenges.

As a follow-up to the African Security and Investment Emergency Summit held in London, we successfully organized a National Security roundtable with Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade. The roundtable was well attended by the media, CSOs and stakeholders in Nigeria’s security set up and gave an opportunity for the Defence spokesman to brief participating stakeholders on progress made by the Nigerian government in its fight against insurgency and terrorism.

We hosted events to celebrate various International Days that relate to our strategic focus such as the Human Rights Day, Day of the African Child, Black History Month and the International Women’s Day

Ahead of the 2015 General Election in Nigeria, GLEEHD (Africa) hosted a 12 weeks election series at the Dream Center in Lagos discussing issues around the 2015 election with speakers including Governor Kayode Fayemi, Dr. Muiz Banire, A.B Mahmoud SAN, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, and many others.

We held trainings and workshops in preparation for Nigeria’s 2015 election and also monitored the process of the election. Our advocacy contributed to the smooth and peaceful conduct of 2015 election which has been widely commended for having less irregularities than any before it.

We hosted the UN Young General Assembly Session (Nigeria 2004), Abuja on behalf of the Young General Assembly Secretariat with the support of the Office of the President, UNICEF Nigeria, Office of the Deputy Senate President – Ibrahim Mantu, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, and Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs